The Irish standard., 1887-10-15
ABOUT CONVERSATION.

Most Interesting Place nf Residence.
Is there any such thing ;ls conyers;,-
ton? 1t is q delicate subject to touch.
because many people understand con
yersation to be talk; not the exchange
ofSideas, but Of words; and the Drawer
would not like to say any thing to in
crease the flow Of the latter. We read
of times and salons in which real con-
versation existed. held by men and
women. Are they altogether in the
past? We believe that men do some
times converse. Do women ever? Per-
haps so. In those hours sacred to the
relaxation Of undress and the back
hair, in the upper penetralia of the
household, where two OF three OF six
are gathered together ON and about the
cushioned frame intended for repose,
do they converse, Or indulge in that
sort of chat from which not one idea is
carried away? No one reports, fortu-
nately, and we do not know. But do
all the women like this method Of
| spending hour after hour, day after
| day--irdced, a lifetime9 Is it invig-
Grating, even restful? Think of the
| talk this past summer, the rivers and
oceans Of it, on piazza; and galleries in
| the warm evenings or the fre5bcr morn
ings. in private houses, on hotel veran-
| das. in the shade Of thousands OF cottages
by the sea and in the hills! As YOU re-
call it, what was it all about? Was;
the mind in a vapid condition after an
evening Of it? And there is 50 much
to read, and so much to think about,
| and the world is so intercs1iny if you
do think about it, and neatly every
person has some pecuiiarity OF mind
that would be worth study if you could
only get at it! 1t is really, we repeat,
such an interesting world, and most
people get so little out of it. Now
there is the conversation OF hens, when
the hens are busy and not self-con-
scious; there is somethin fascinating
about it, because the imagination may
invest it with Il recondite and spicy
meaning; but the common talk OF peo-
pie! We infer sometimes that the
hens are not saying any thing. because
they do not read, and consequently
their minds are empty. And perhaps
we are right. AS to conversation,
there is no use in sending the bucket
into the we'll when the we'll is dry--it
only makes rattling of windlass and
chain.
The Drawer does not wish to be
understood as an enemy Of the light
traffic of human speech. Deliver us
from the ddactit and the everlastingly
improving style of thing' Conversa-
tion, in order to be good, and intel
lectua]ly inspiring, and spiritually rest
full, need not always bo serious. It
must be alert and Intelligent, and
mean more by its suggestions and. al
lnsions than is said. There is the
light toucla->nd-go play about topic
more or less profound that is as
agreeable as heat-lghtning in a sui
try evening Why may not
person express the vhins and vagarics
Of 8 lamhent mind (if he can
get Il 1;smbent mjndl without being
hauled up short for it, and plunged
into heated dispute? In the freedom
Of rea! conversation the miud throws
out halg~thoughts, paradoxes, for which
a man is not to be held strictly respon-
sible to the very roots OF his being, and
which need to be caught up and played
with in the same tentative spirit. The
dispute and the hot argument are
usually the bane of conversation and
the death Of originality. We like to
express q notion, q fancy, without be-
ing called upon to defend it, then and
there, in all it's possible consequences,
as if it were to be an article in a creed
OF a plank i'll q platform. Must we be
always either vapid or serious?
The Drawer has been obliged to take
notice of the extraordinary tendency OF
American women to cultivation, to the
of the mind, by means OF
clubs and other intellectual
exercises. and to acknowledge that they
are leaving the men behind; that is,
the men not in the so-called profess
sions. In this intellectualization be-
Ai4iLI1S, w SiAOW LII UuC COutt1 oGlUlOu VI
women when they are together, say in
the hours Of relaxation in the pene-
tralia spoken OF, or in general society?
Is there less talk about the fashion OF
dress, and the dearness or cheapness OF
and about servants, and the
ways of the inchoate citizen called the
baby, and the infinitely little details OF
the private life OF other people? Is ittrue
that if q group of men are talking, say
about politics, OF robust business, OF
literature. and they are joined by
women (whose company is always
the conversation is pretty
sure to take lower mental plane. to
become more personal, more frivolous,
accommodating itself to quite differ
ent range? Do the well-read, thought !
ful women, however, beautiful and
brilliant and capable of the gayest per- !
sifage, prefer to talk with men, to !.
listen to the conversation of men,
rather than to converse with or listen
to their own sex? If this is true, why :
IS it? Women as q r1le in sssOcietv,' | .